Modern vehicles include a plethora of electronic sensors that provide information to one or more controllers. One such sensor is a rotational speed sensor that detects the speed of a rotating component. A tone wheel can either be formed integrally with the rotating component or attached to it. The tone wheel includes slots, grooves, or other surface features. As the rotating component rotates, the surface features of the tone wheel also rotate and an electrical pulse is generated each time a surface feature rotates past the sensor.
Transmissions in vehicles have many rotating parts, and a speed of the rotating parts is helpful in many different control settings. One example of a mechanism in a transmission with rotating parts is a planetary gearset. Planetary gearsets include a sun gear, planet gears, a planet carrier, and a ring rear. Any one of these gears can be configured to rotate about the central axis. The detected rotating speed of one of these gears can typically make the rotational speeds of the other gears known through the given gear ratio of the planetary gear set. For example, a tone wheel may be provided about and secured to the carrier to make the speed of the carrier known; hence, the speed of the sun and planet gears also known.